Boris Dmitriev – a man who left a mark in the history of our country

In modern society, interest in noble culture is noticeably growing, people are attracted by the beautiful lifestyle and manners of the aristocracy of the past. But the Russian nobility is not just good manners and luxurious mansions, this phenomenon is much deeper, it is a whole system of moral values, in which the concepts of duty and honor come first. And they instilled these values ​​in a person from early childhood, which is why, according to researchers, the Russian aristocrat can be distinguished as a special type of personality, as a person of extraordinary honesty and nobility.

An extraordinary exhibition has opened at the Vera Korshunova Gallery – surprisingly warm, bright, kind. The exhibition is not just an artist, but a doctor, a person of the highest culture. Surgeon, memoirist, amateur artist. His first personal exhibition presents paintings from the family collection that have never left the walls of his native home.

Quite a lot has been written about the famous Yalta doctor Vladimir Nikolaevich Dmitriev (he stood at the origins of modern balneology and climate treatment), but very little is known about his son, also a doctor. The descendants of a talented person – Nadezhda Vladimirovna Dmitrieva, granddaughter of the artist-doctor, head of the Department of Culture of the Moscow Nobility Assembly, and great-granddaughter – Ekaterina Klementyeva, Ph.D. in art history, senior researcher at the State Tretyakov Gallery lovingly prepared an exhibition dedicated to the work of the great ancestor. The recently published diaries of Boris Vladimirovich, reverently collected by Nadezhda Dmitrieva in the book “Dear, dear Yalta”, also shed light on his life and work as a doctor, but not in Yalta, but in Odessa, Moscow and Kolomna.

Boris Vladimirovich was born in Yalta, in the family of a well-known doctor and public figure Vladimir Nikolaevich Dmitriev. Dmitriev Sr. treated the Grand Dukes of the Romanovs, Princess Yuryevskaya, Queen Natalia of Serbia, the painter Orlovsky and many others… significant heights in the medical field.

The basic principle in the upbringing and life of a nobleman was as follows – to whom much is given, much will be asked of him, therefore great attention was paid to upbringing and education in noble families. Dmitriev Jr. was educated at the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial Novorossiysk University in Odessa, then at the University of Munich (where he studied with the famous Professor K. V. Kupfer) and later at the Medical Faculty of Kyiv University, from which he graduated in 1902. Having received a medical diploma, Boris Vladimirovich began working in an Odessa clinic. In 1905 he moved to Moscow, entered the service of the Basman hospital. Boris Vladimirovich was a brilliant surgeon, he performed serious operations, he was the first in Russia to engage in cosmetic surgery. He gained respect and fame among doctors and patients, they said that he had “velvet hands.” Despite his success, the young doctor was constantly studying, reading medical journals, was present at many operations and subsequently applied the experience gained in the hospitals where he worked.

In 1910, in Moscow, Boris Vladimirovich met the daughter of the Greek ambassador, Nadezhda Karalli (1890-1967), who soon became his wife. She was 19, he was 35. She turned out to be an energetic housewife, a loving wife and a wonderful mother. In this marriage, three children were born.

From 1912 to 1933, Dmitriev served as chief physician of the machine-building plant in Kolomna. The young doctor came to this town near Moscow without experience in administrative work. He acquired it while acting as chief physician at a machine-building plant in Kolomna, where 9,500 people worked, and during the First World War the number of workers doubled. He achieved the construction of a new hospital building, increased the staff of medical staff to 9 doctors, and created a maternity ward. In the hospital, Dmitriev led the surgical department and the X-ray room, as well as advisory work in the outpatient clinic and on trips. He did not refuse to operate in district zemstvo hospitals. There were weeks when every night he was called to the hospital. The work was especially intense in 1914-1917. In Kolomna, in addition to his main work, Boris Vladimirovich composed plays, in his spare time he staged performances not only with adults, but also with children, he painted scenery for performances. After 15 years, the family returned to Moscow. Boris Vladimirovich worked in the clinic of the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute, was the head physician of the Bolshoi Theater. Son Vladimir became, like his father, a surgeon: during the Great Patriotic War, Major Dmitriev saved the wounded in hospitals, designed an apparatus for measuring intrapleural pressure. Leonid became a professor at the Gnessin Institute.

From childhood, the nobles were prepared for the fact that life would not be a continuous fun ball: is there a person who does not have difficult trials, losses, failures, disappointments in life? The nobles were prepared for the fact that all this would happen and that it was necessary to endure all this courageously, without losing their dignity.

After suffering a heart attack in 1937, Dr. Dmitriev retired, but during the Great Patriotic War he returned to professional activity.

Being a man of versatile interests, Dmitriev studied music, was fond of photography since childhood and was very observant. His passion for drawing began in his student years. Despite the lack of professional academic art education, the level of skill achieved by the doctor-painter Boris Vladimirovich allowed him, after leaving the service, even to earn a living with portraits and drawings.

At the end of his life, the great doctor and no less great artist wrote memoirs in which he spoke interestingly about himself, his family, and friends. The list of famous people with whom fate brought B.V. Dmitriev together is huge. Among them: composers Rubinstein, Amani, who at one time taught Boris music, Goldenweiser, who played his works in the Dmitrievs’ house, writers Chekhov, Wanderer, musician and composer Paul, artists Vasnetsov, Myasoedov, Yartsev, Yakunchikova, Orlovsky, Larti, Polenov … ” The first trace in my soul in relation to painting and landscape, ”as Dmitriev recalled, was laid by the artist I. E. Krachkovsky. The talented doctor studied with many great masters of the brush, but the artist G. F. Yartsev (1858 – 1918) had the greatest influence on Dmitriev’s work. “With what pleasure I watched when Yartsev painted his paintings … A holy love for the beauty of nature was reflected in every little sketch of him, always full of peculiar charm, freshness, modesty, poetry and truth,” Boris Vladimirovich later recalled.

As the representative of the artist’s family, the famous Russian painter Boris Klementyev, noted: “The ability to notice beauty in a simple motive, truthfully and soulfully convey it to the viewer is the most important property that characterizes the creative direction of Boris Dmitriev. It is natural that those qualities that Boris Vladimirovich appreciated in the work of other artists were also reflected in his own paintings, painted in the traditions of Russian realistic art.

The main part of the family heritage is made up of landscapes, mostly sketches of the Moscow region painted in oil on paper. Dmitriev skillfully conveys the surrounding reality – trees growing by the river, modest village houses, a road running into the distance. Several sketches are also presented, which depict views of the Crimea and the Caucasus. In total, the exhibition presents over 50 works by Dmitriev. The exposition is complemented by old photographs from the collection of the doctor’s family. Few monumental paintings have survived, and they are the pride of the collection. Among them is the famous “Landscape with Sheaves” (1916), which immortalizes a corner of the family estate in the now deserted village of Ashcherikha, Nizhny Novgorod Region. The multi-colored colors of golden autumn come to life in the painting “Old Cottage” (1915), painted with an energetic pasty brushstroke. On the late canvas “Boris and the Goat” (early 1940s), the artist’s little grandson is depicted.

The exhibition was visited by Yu. V. Alexandrin, Director of the Revival Foundation of the Staritsky Holy Assumption Monastery, O. V. Shcherbachev, leader of the Moscow Nobility Assembly, Grand Duke G. M. Romanov, V. A. Abramov, famous collector, creator of the collection house Abramovyh, S. Borisov – Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the Russian Federation, D. Trofimov – head of the Tsargrad icon-painting workshop, painters Ya. Poklad and O. Melnikova, sculptor V. Lepeshov and others.

The guests could not only enjoy the contemplation of the magnificent painting, but also listen to the beautiful French chanson performed by the inimitable singer Nina Delon.

Today, interest in noble culture is noticeable – films about that time, all kinds of balls, etiquette lessons and much more. But for the most part, such an interest is very superficial, it is an interest in a beautiful life: “Ah, outfits, ah, a ball, ah, curtsies!” Few understand how the nobles lived in reality: self-restraint, the strictest requirements for conscience, dignity, honor, duty to the state.

Boris Vladimirovich Dmitriev lived a long, eventful life. He was happily married. We love. Established as a doctor. He passed on to his sons a love for the profession and a desire for improvement. All the knowledge and skills acquired in childhood were useful to him in a difficult life in the Soviet state. And the “Memoirs”, written by him for himself and his family, turned out to be interesting for us, contemporaries of another era, because they contain information about people who left a mark on the history of our country.

Elena Minashkina.

Photo by Mikhail Kovalev